I'm always reluctant to get on the "playcalling SUCKED!!!!!!!1111" bandwagon because it's so predictable and dull.....but last night..... I thought the opening drive set the tone for the whole game. We have this great running game and the Packers have all these injuries (including Raji in the middle) and the 1st play of the game is a sack on a pass play. Next play is an incomplete screen pass. So now it's 3rd and 12. Time for a pass play, right? Try to get a first down, right? Wrong. Draw play, 4th down. Then that sequence right before the half. Packers face a 4th and 8 in their own territory. They start lining up like they're going to go for it and the ensuing confusion causes us to let precious seconds tick off the clock before we can call a timeout. Why would you not call a timeout as soon as that 3rd down play is over? Everyone in the stadium (except the Texans coaching staff) knew they weren't really going to go for it. The Packers got over on us on that play. They were just messing with us at that point. They even showed Rogers laughing about it with one of the refs. He seemed surprised the Texans actually fell for it. Very embarrassing.
At the near end of the half when we should have been calling a TO and trying to push back into FG range, we instead looked like a beat dog, scared to come out from under the coffee table for dinner. Pathetic performance to a man except maybe Watt, everyone else from players to the coaches was soundly beaten by their GB counter part. The fact that a Kubiak led team again appeared to lay down after getting punched in the mouth is the whole reason why many fail to see Superbowl winning coach when we look at him.
This. Reliant Stadium's field just flat-out sucks, period. I'd like Kubiak and some players (Foster, Tate, etc.) to raise a much bigger stink about it. I'm tired of the slipping at and behind the LOS, and I worry that one of our players may get injured due to the crappy field.
blaming anything on the ****ty field is stupid. the pack played on the same field, albeit on a much higher level.
Turf is easy. Reliant is already supposed to have (or soon get) an artificial turf to use for high school and college teams so as to save the grass for Texans games. Yeah, the turf sucks. I'm not going to place any blame on it because both teams have to play on it. But why in the hell are we slipping at home? We go to New York and play on turf when we're used to grass, I get it. But on our home field? We shouldn't be having those issues on a field we're used to playing on.
Got out played by last season's MVP and got out coached. You live by a nickel defense with no pressure and you die by it. Hopefully, now that they see we can't get the same pressure without Cushing playing the nickel scheme and will make alterations to offset those flaws with our current personnel.
Kubes is conservative. We all know that. At that point in the game, he was more worried about turning the ball over than he was putting points on the board. He wasn't willing to take the chance to try to get into FG range.
They didn't lay down going to Denver earlier this year; they certainly didn't lay down with a division title on the line last year, nor did they lay down in the playoffs. He is, by nature, conservative. He's also 15-7 over his last 22 regular season games. For a fanbase that has been decidedly black and white about our W/L record for many, many years, he's winning nearly 70% of his games.
in hindsight we should have played more zone/cover 2 instead of man-to-man/cover 1. rodgers with his wide-outs won almost all 1 on 1 battles. rodgers literally threw it up and let him receivers make a play and they did. this works if you can pressure without blitzing oh well, nice lesson to learn against a non-conference opponent.
My problem was that they blew all our time outs before the 3 minute mark was up when we were going to play TJ Yates at the end. Add in running the ball at the end of the first half instead of just taking a knee, really bad game by Kubiak.
Jonathan Joseph needs to get healthy in a HURRY. I know his groin is bothering him. He has looked bad the last 2 weeks, and that's not going to help going against Boldin, Torrey Smith, and yes, even JaGoofy next week. Flacco is no Rodgers, but one thing Flacco CAN do well is throw the deep ball. If we allow any of those receivers to get even half a step, our secondary could be in for a long day. If Joseph can gut it out, put up a good performance against the Ravens, and then shut it down during the bye week (and even against the Bills if he has to), I would be ecstatic.
If Jacoby Jones burns us the next game.. I think my head will explode. Also.. nothing against "save the boobies" campaign but a stadium of pink does not belong in Reliant.
You know what? It was great not to hear anybody say this was the "biggest game in franchise history" for once.
Yeah, but next week........... I mean....... This is why I hate-Hate-HATED that NBC put us up against two NFC teams. It's fun to play the Packers and it would have been great to beat 'em... But the Raven and Pat games are our two biggest, most important games this year (beyond division).
Nothing would be worse for the psyche of this fan base than getting torched by Jacoby Jones next week.
What's funny or sad is that this exact same scenario happened last year vs the Steelers. I don't think Kubiak is a moron where he actually got fooled. I honestly think Kubiak only called a late timeout to placate the fans or succumbed to an assistant coach. We've had long debates on this exact situation many times on this board, and it's been concluded that whether it was 38 seconds or 1:38, Kubiak would have pocketed his timeouts and gone into halftime to regroup, whether behind or ahead.
No it didn't. Last year, the Texans led 10-0 at the time; playing conservatively and not waking a sleeping dog is justifiable. Here, he was trailing by 11 and getting thoroughly outplayed. And the Packers were getting the opening kick-off. You were staring 28-10 down. So the scenario was completely different. Last year, you were in complete control. This year, you were desperate.
Tim Jamison lost for the season with torn achilles. David Hunter on the PS is option number one but they have 'a few days' to see.
Then look at the New Orleans game. I agree that each game is a different scenario, but my point is that Kubiak's philosophy has stayed the same. They don't go 2 minute drill before halftime even with timeouts unless there are much more than 2 minutes on the clock. They run, run, run, halftime it.
